The end of the second millennium has been a time of change perhaps portending future norms. The Cold War has ended, allowing civil/military convergence in technical areas never before thought possible and cooperation across international boundaries previously prohibited. Global economic growth is counterbalanced by deficits and constrained spending. Maximizing resources is the international mantra. One of the truly auspicious results of this situation is the creativity that has emerged toward maximizing resources. In the space field, areas of research are actively seeking ways to link with areas of application to the betterment of both. A U.S.-Japan bi-lateral space initiative has the opportunity to join the fields of remote sensing and disaster warning, control and mitigation which may prove a model for future endeavors.
      Many remote sensing programs, generally organized by what they observed (weather, land masses, oceans, etc.) have been pursued by NASA, ESA and space agencies from other nations. NASA's Mission to Planet Earth is arguably the first comprehensive program to study the Earth as a system. Previously, national and international efforts have, quite separately from environmental observations, focused on disaster detection and relief. These efforts are culminating in the United Nations' IDIDR (International Decade for International Disaster Reduction). Satellites for observation and/or rapid communication are not a part of this effort. However, the inherent speed and efficiency of Earth observation by satellite and the demonstrated, rapid global information connectivity provided by communications satellites seem to be natural capability enhancers for disaster warning, control and mitigation efforts.
      One initiative to link remote sensing and disaster warning is being pursued as part of the Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Space Project (JUSCSP), for which participation of interested parties is currently being sought. JUSCSP is one of several sub-sections of the United States-Japan Leadership Council (USJLC), formed in 1990 by a group of distinguished political and business leaders from both nations. At the 1992 meeting, the USJLC identified "space" as a particularly relevant and appropriate way to address the objective of finding areas for cooperation between the two countries directed toward global needs. The council gave its endorsement to the JUSCSP, with special emphasis on the environmental/disaster observation satellite systems.
      Hence, a Disaster Observation Satellite Working Group (DOSWG) was formed. They have subsequently initiated a project stemming from a Japanese study of a World Environment and Disaster Observation System (WEDOS). It addresses the requirement for an international, global satellite system with the capability of providing faster disaster warning and other services, to be operational in the late 1990's or the early 21st century. Toward that goal, the DOSWG, through extensive non-governmental coordination, is working on a disaster observation system (DOS) concept which stresses the need for a phased development approach. This approach recognizes that current, on-orbit systems belonging to many nations provide significant observation capability, but do not meet all the requirements for all aspects of disaster warning. The DOSWG concept proposes taking advantage of existing national and international systems in the near term through fusion of currently available data in order to provide global data analysis and value added-products capable of supporting disaster warning. Ultimately, the end product will be distributed to both government and commercial users, and additional capability will be continually added as more on-orbit assets become available. DOS is not envisioned as a scientific project, but rather one that focuses on real time exploitation of space-based assets for warning observation, productive analysis, and damage assessment and mitigation.
      A functional and effective disaster observation system must address three phases: disaster warning, disaster control and disaster mitigation. Such a system requires visibility of the entire globe in order to provide a near continuous stream of observed data which then must be evaluated in a timely fashion; minutes rather than hours or days; and then distributed rapidly, in an easily usable form. The observed data, which reaches Earth as a transmitted stream of ones and zeros or a modulated electromagnetic wave must be processed in order to enable identification of natural disasters including: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.; and man-made disasters such as: oil spills, reactor accidents and fires. A key capability of the processing system is to identify change, evaluate the impact of the change, and facilitate automated or human determination of action required. To support this capability, storage of the continuous data stream may not be required, but a decision on how often to store a sample of the data stream must be made to support observation of changes in our "Earth system."
      The Japanese WEDOS, the follow up ADEOS (Advanced Earth Observing Satellite, scheduled for launch in 1996), the ESA ERS (Environmental Research Satellite) satellites and the NASA EOS (European Space Agency Earth Observing System) are examples of systems which have significant potential to help meet world-wide requirements for a disaster warning system. Key to their ultimate utility is the effective and integrated application of the observed data between scientific research and the functional application which will support timely disaster warning while considering all applicable international policies governing the accepted applications and services.
      Recently, the Satellite Communications Working Group (SCWG) of the JUSCSP has developed a test plan which examines satellite communications technologies and techniques which could provide improved scope and quality of communications in the Asia-Pacific region and could meet needs not currently being met by satellite or terrestrial systems. The test plan, called the Trans-Pacific High Data Rate Satellite Communications Experiments, includes the following demonstrations:
1. ATM-LAN interconnection at 45 Mb/s
2. Telemedicine at 45 Mb/s
3. High Definition Video program delivery at 140 and 155 Mb/s
4. High Definition Video post-production processing at 45, 140, and 155 Mb/s
5. Earth Observation System, Data & Information System data visualization experiment
6. Satellite/fiber optic cable comparison tests
7. Multi-node network tests involving other Asia-Pacific and/or European countries
      The ATM-LAN interconnection demonstration is primarily designed to verify end-to-end connectivity between the mainland U.S., Hawaii and Japan. The next three demonstrations verify the capability to transmit a large volume of data very quickly, with a very low bit-error rate. The last three experiments develop global system capabilities. These characteristics are essential for such tasks as handling Earth observation data for disaster observations, (weather, seismic feature and event mapping, identification of landslide or flood potential, thermal anomalies associated with volcanic activity, etc.) warning, control and mitigation as well as other data applications such as graphics, still pictures and video which could be used in such areas as medical diagnosis, city planning, or any of a myriad of additional applications requiring timely evaluation and action on data received from a remote source.
      The first four experiments will be conducted during a four month period in late 1995 over a double-hop link which will be established across the Pacific Ocean connecting the U.S. mainland and Hawaii using the NASA ACTS satellite, and Hawaii and Japan using an INTELSAT satellite. Earth stations will be located on the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Japan. Terrestrial fiber optic links will connect experiment participants in each of the three locations with the appropriate Earth station in order to effect trans-Pacific data transfer.
      The various experiments will be designed and conducted by teams from organizations in each country which may include government agencies, telecommunications carriers, users, equipment manufacturers, and academic research centers. Although the initial experiments will be conducted by the two countries in the Pacific region, it is expected that later experiments will be extended to the other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, to Europe, and around the world.
      These experiments are intended to test and to demonstrate the role of satellites in the Global Information Infrastructure (GII). Specifically, the goal is to demonstrate an implementation of the GII using integrated terrestrial/satellite facilities in such a way as to take advantage of the timeliness and economic merits that satellites have in providing service to people and institutions located anywhere on the Earth. The key advantage of satellite communications is its "wireless" nature over long distances. This characteristic makes satellite communications affordable and applicable for such diverse functions as telecommunications for remote areas, ships at sea, aircraft in flight, and communications networks in developing nations. With little to no ground based infrastructure satellite communications support such services as medical and environmental emergency information dissemination, health and medical services, distance education and learning, training and technical assistance and economic development in diverse areas of the world from the South Pacific Islands to the Arctic. The Japan/Hawaii/U.S. architecture will be used to demonstrate and validate the seamless, high data rate transmission capabilities so essential for an evolving world-wide disaster observation system, as well as many other applications in the GII. It appears the GII is well able to handle most, if not all of the data volume requirements for disaster.
      The Trans-Pacific High Data Rate Communications Experiments seem to present a timely opportunity to validate the concept of transforming digital satellite observation data into appropriate formats which will support disaster warning, control and mitigation while simultaneously meeting the policy requirements of both the U.S. and Japan governing accepted data information applications and services. The unique aspects of these experiments make the communications links available to users for only the cost of the transmission time involved in actual data transfer.
      The high data rate nature of the Trans-Pacific experiments helps to minimize transmission costs and allows efficient cross checks in the multiple data formats which are being evaluated. This provides a unique opportunity for many groups to evaluate various architectures for processing Earth observation data for the purpose of disaster warning, control and mitigation. The opportunity to sample both archived and real time satellite geospatial data simultaneously, through the GII, and to have users from many nations evaluate various processing algorithms and compare their utility is significant.
      The importance of crossing disciplines and linking research and applications is increasingly being recognized. Encouragement and support should be given to more initiatives of this type by both governments and the private sector. Non-traditional, but increasingly functional methods such as the Trans-Pacific High Data Rate Satellite Communications Experiments seem an appropriate way to facilitate the type of international cooperation and interaction required to turn the concept of a global disaster warning, control and mitigation system into a reality.

About the author:
Questions concerning participation in the Trans-Pacific High Data Rate Satellite Communications Experiments can be directed to: Capt. George Moore, Air War College, AWC/DFW, Maxwell AFB, Al 36112; Telephone: 334-953-7113.

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